Thousands paid a tearful adieu as the mortal remains of thespian Sivaji Ganesan was consigned to flames this noon in the presence of the his family, fans and leading lights of the Tamil film industry. Around 12.30 pm, a team of policemen reversed arms, fired 3 volleys in the air and sounded the bugle as a mark of respect for the cine icon, whose histrionics in 300-odd films had made him a household for the people in the south. At the Besant Nagar crematorium, Sivaji's eldest son Ramkumar peformed the last rites of the actor, whose frail body kept in a glass coffin appeared to be a pale shadow from his robust self.
Earlier, the glass coffin with the body of the 'nadigar thilakam' reached the crematorium after a ten-km procession led by actor Vijaykanth representing the South Indian Artistes Association. The
coffin was carried in a flower-bedecked truck from his T Nagar residence in south Boag road, renamed Chavelier Sivaji Ganesan Salai. As the immortal thespian completed his last journey on earth, a huge crowd at the crematorium surged forward in an outburst of grief. A large number of women wailed inconsolably, many of them beating their chests hysterically. People in the vicinity of the middle-class locality had assembled atop their multistoried apartments to catch a last glipse of the actor.
| 
